Canadians should be responsible for their own debts, but Mike Stafford says Canadian banks and lenders have to share some responsibility, as well.

The loonie shot up following fresh signals from the Bank of Canada that it is giving more thought to raising interest rates, while Toronto's main stock index continued its second day of declines.

Carolyn Wilkins said the gains are something Canada hasn't seen since before the oil-price collapse nearly three years ago.

Expect the spread between fixed-rate and variable-rate mortgages to widen.

Skewed trade figures boosted fourth-quarter headline number